What is the murder rate in your city?

[Dr. Phalange]

Originally Posted by VanSeaPor

One of the things I've noticed about living in the Pacific Northwest is that we've got lower murder rates than the rest of Canada and America, but we've got a higher rate of property crimes.

Lower homicide rates may be true in comparison with American cities, however that certainly does not hold true for Canadian cities (aside from perhaps Victoria, in which demographics is a primary reason for the low homicide rate).

Vancouver has higher viloent crimes and homicides than the Canadian average for CMA's over 500,000, in addition to having higher property crimes. Thus, overall, Vancouver has the highest crime rate per capita in Canada (CMA's over 500,000).

Noteworthy also is the fact that the Toronto CMA has the second lowest crime rate per capita (and below average homicide rate), despite all of the media sensationalism.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060720/d060720b.htm

[Dr. Phalange]

^
Those Statcan statistics are from 2005, which saw a particularly higher number of homicides than usual in the Toronto CMA.

Crime rates down significantly in 2006: police
Updated Tue. Nov. 7 2006 2:45 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Crime and safety was the number one issue for voters in an exclusive CTV News poll, and police statistics show the overall crime rate is down significantly.

The 2006 violent crime stats are as follows:

Homicides are down 13.4 per cent;
Gun-related killings are down 46.7 per cent; and
The number of shootings is down 18.7 per cent.
The statistics follow a bloody 2005, which was labelled "the summer of the gun" because 52 people were killed at the hands of a firearm.

So far this year, officers have seized more than 2,000 firearms.

Mayor David Miller was criticized last year for not acting until after the gun violence exploded, and took some heat for not sitting on the Police Services Board until the second half of his term.

He has during his rookie three-year term put 450 officers on the streets and increased the police budget by $117 million.

Police say crime rates are down because of several sweeping raids that have kept suspected gang members behind bars.

Miller says there is no money to hire new officers. Opponents say many cops will be retiring soon, which will lead to an increase in crime.

Toronto is one of the safest cities of its size in North America, but some residents don't feel that way.

Tourists, on the other hand, told CTV News the city is very safe.

"I see a lot of women walking around late at night, and it's a little unusual," one man from London, England said.

Miller has promised to inject $13 million over the next four years into 13 troubled neighbourhoods that have a history of violence and poverty, and low levels of service. Part of the money will go towards expanding partnerships for youth employment.

His main rival, Councillor Jane Pitfield, calls crime "the biggest issue in the city," and would hire more police officers if elected. She wants to deal with "the root causes of crime," saying she is concerned about "the visible decline" in the downtown core with "substance abuse, homelessness, prostitution, and panhandling."

The other main contender, lawyer Stephen LeDrew, says the police force does need more officers, but more cops are not the total solution. He says the city needs "more community involvement" to help youth find jobs and opportunities and avoid crime.

[Dr. Phalange]

I find it somewhat odd that Edmonton has the highest homicide rate per capita in the country (2005).

[LordMandeep]

Toronto, Montreal, Calgary are the safest major cities in North America.

Toronto is the safest big city in North America as well.

People always say I feel Safer in Manhatten then in New York, i don't know why...because you stay between 30th and 100th street..

It the media, there are bored as in some days nothing happens in city and they need something to take up an hour. I suggest they spend more time on other local issues like CBC Toronto.

[krull]

Originally Posted by LordMandeep

People always say I feel Safer in Manhatten then in New York, i don't know why...because you stay between 30th and 100th street..

Actually Queens and Staten Island are much safer than Manhattan.

[krull]

Anyway here is a map showing all the countries by murder rates with different colors.


Countries by murder rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants:



Note:

The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary, and criminal justice systems and definitions of murder differ with some countries including deaths caused by dangerous driving.

Murder demographics are affected by the improvement of trauma care, leading to reduced lethality of violent assaults—thus the murder rate may also not necessarily indicate the overall level of societal violence.

Also on this link you can see countries crime by decades... USA and england/wales ofcourse goes as far as the 1900's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...by_murder_rate

[techniques1200s]

San Francisco has started the year off tough. There have been 11 homicides as of January 14th. Also, 3 people were shot to death on December 29th. So that means there have been 14 murders in 17 days.

6 of them took place this weekend.....4 people were shot to death in 2 double-homicides (including a couple who were killed in front of their young children), a woman was killed in a murder-suicide, and a woman was found burnt to death.

Also, the first big crime of the new year, happened at 2:30 am, January 1st, when 4 people were shot. It's lucky non of them died. Later that night 2 people were killed. 4 shot and two killed on january 1st.

[Dr. Phalange]

Originally Posted by LordMandeep

Toronto, Montreal, Calgary are the safest major cities in North America.

You excluded Ottawa, which is statistically more safe than both Calgary and Montreal.

[fluffyhorse]

Since 2000, Baltimore has had somewhere around 270+ murders a year. Since it has a population of 650,000+ the murder rate is over 40 per 100,000 people.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by techniques1200s

San Francisco has started the year off tough. There have been 11 homicides as of January 14th. Also, 3 people were shot to death on December 29th. So that means there have been 14 murders in 17 days.

6 of them took place this weekend.....4 people were shot to death in 2 double-homicides (including a couple who were killed in front of their young children), a woman was killed in a murder-suicide, and a woman was found burnt to death.

Also, the first big crime of the new year, happened at 2:30 am, January 1st, when 4 people were shot. It's lucky non of them died. Later that night 2 people were killed. 4 shot and two killed on january 1st.

Damn, what the hell is going on there!?! the record seems to be in serious jepoardy.

[KGB89]

Baltimore for the win

Rank 1
Population 641,097
Murders 269
Murder Rate 42.0

Take that South Africa!

[Küsel]

What the hell happened to Baltimore and San Fran?

[Tiaren]

Acording to the posted map, Brazil is really baaaaaad!

Hey, take a look at Germany! Such a nice country nowadays...

[Küsel]

True - we are much worse than Germany in that term - Switzerland is Nr. 1 in Europe without EE! With murder rate of 2.94!!

But still far behind Europe's leaders Russia (19.8 - 8th on world list and comparable to Brazil), Lithuania (9.38, what a difference to Nr.1!!!) and Latvia (8.58).

[FREKI]

How the heck can anyone get killed on Iceland...? ( must be some domestic thing... )


Or maybe a gang war, because people are disrespecting the hoods roofcolour

[tablemtn]

San Francisco has a big problem with Mexican/Salvadoran gangs, particularly drug gangs. Sometimes they even bring in gang rivalries that begin IN Mexico, and shoot it out in SF.

[DrT]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

San Francisco has a big problem with Mexican/Salvadoran gangs, particularly drug gangs. Sometimes they even bring in gang rivalries that begin IN Mexico, and shoot it out in SF.

Yeah, the reason that the gangs are fighting it out is because there are lots of buyers, and hence money to be made there. I saw an article less than a week ago, I think in USA Today, that gave SF the award for the city in America that has the highest per capita numbers of people who use illegal drugs. Something like 12% of all citizens of SF claimed they had taken an illegal drug in the previous two months. Don't blame the gangs folks, blame the buyers.

[tablemtn]

There are buyers in every country. Just because there are buyers, why does that mean the sellers have to be violent? They ought to work out a much more civil arrangement like the Japanese Yakuza has.

[Küsel]

12% is absolutly nothing... in my country every third person had at least once contact with illegal drugs including cocaine, ecstasy or marihuana (the latter is accepted though theoretically illegal in most cantons). 1/6 of the pop uses regularly illegal drugs. But it's another situation - drugs have a much higher acceptance in Switzerland than in the US or Brazil. Addicted people can get heroin from stately institutions. In the mid-90s the police cleaned up the biggest open scene in Europe at Zurich's letten and since then the markets for soft and hard drugs are split up, prices fell, the quality got better the crime rate and drug death poll decreased enormously! Since many years the people wait for the legalization and controlled selling of at least soft drugs by the parliament. It's a matter of time.

I just wonder why other countries except for some cities as Amsterdam or Frankfurt didn't learn from this experience (especally Brazil where even smoking grass has the same status as killing your neighbour in society)

[Chicagoago]

Yeah a huge part of Americas' murders are obviously from gangs/drugs.

Almost everyone I know has or does smoke pot - the rest couldn't care less if its legal or not. Even in my office everyone knows that about 20% of us get stoned all the time. We're working in a professional scene, and people are open minded enough to know it doesn't really matter. Everyone else drinks, which I feel is worse for your health than smoking a joint once or twice a week.

When will the government at least make pot legal. Save billions a year fighting it, get billions in tax dollars. Get hundreds of thousands out of the jails/prisons. Take away a huge part of what's driving our gangs and murders.

At least Chicago is looking at just making posession of marijuana an offense for which you're issued a ticket, like for speeding in a car, and not hauling you down to jail.